Outbreak of dengue fever in Thailand

The rainy season in Thailand is now in full swing and when it rains it means mosquitoes as well. With mosquitoes comes the danger of dengue fever as well as Malaria in Thailand. Each year thousands of cases of dengue fever are reported by hospitals around Thailand.

Residents and tourists alike need to stay vigilant during the rainy season from the threat of Dengue Fever. Wherever there are pools of standing water there will be mosquitoes, the most prevalent of Dengue Fever is in Chiang Mai because it lays low and flat therefore the water doesn't travel anywhere and gets trapped in the city. Tourists like to go backpacking in the mountains and bring back Dengue Fever from the jungles. Then they go to sleep in their hotel rooms, get bitten by mosquito's the mosquito then goes and bites another guest and before you know it the entire hotel and guests have contracted Dengue Fever.

Most mosquito diseases are typically located in the tropics around the equator and can be a real nuisance. Only the female mosquito bites, the male doesn't. They say that if you have lived in Thailand for the past 20 years or so then you have about a 1 in 100 chances of having contracted Dengue Fever, this statistic is probably higher if you live in Phuket or Chiang Mai.

Symptoms, Causes, Signs that I have Dengue Fever

Symptoms of Dengue Fever In Thailand

At first you may not know you have dengue fever, you may just think you have a bad head cold, with flu like symptoms and rashes dengue fever in some cases can turn deadly.

Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a more severe form of the illness. It can be pretty serious too and has the same symptoms including rash, fever, bad headaches and hemorrhaging inside the body. Blisters on the skin and bleeding from areas of the body. This form of dengue fever can be life-threatening and can progress to the most severe form of the illness, dengue shock syndrome.

How to stop getting bitten by mosquitoes

You should try the following to prevent being bitten by mosquitoes

Get a good mosquito spray, if your from Australia and you brought aeroguard to Thailand, forget about it, the mosquitoes here must be different because that doesn't keep them away, locally they have a product that you can find at most drug stores and even 7-eleven, the local product rubs into the skin easily and the Mozzies won't go anywhere near that area, though you kind of have to spray your whole body to get a good effect from it.

Wear long clothing, I know it's hot and this might not be fun but wearing long clothing prevents the mosquitoes from getting access to your skin to bite you in the first place.

Don't wear perfume or cologne, this only attracts the little buggers

If you plan on camping in the jungle make sure you take a mosquito net because they will be hunting you down!

If you live in a place that has standing water, you'll want to cover anything that does, getting rid of buckets and so forth from around your Thai home will help, if you have something with lotus flowers in it, you'll want to add some fish, no need to feed them, they'll just eat all the mosquito lava, awesome!

One of the coolest weapons against mosquitoes in Thailand are the electronic Tennis Racket (mosquito squatter) sold at Lotus and hardware stores, the electric mosquito squatter is the ultimate weapon against mosquitoes, with one quick swoop of the racket you trap and fry the mosquitoes in their tracks, buy one of these things to take home with you, they work for flies and pretty much anything. I bought one that i can easily recharge at home.

Electronic Mosquito Racket

Not all mosquitoes carry Dengue Fever only a specific kind.

Malaria

Malaria is another mosquito born disease but doesn't have as much attention in Thailand as Dengue Fever is more prevalent. Most of the mosquitoes that carry Malaria (there is a specific kind) are found only in the remote places of Thailand typically in the middle of the Jungle.

To diagnose Malaria you have to undergo a specific test, typically a blood smear exam where they take a sample of your blood and put it under a microscope. Malaria is not fun and you don't want to catch it, and if your travelling to Thailand don't bother about vaccinations unless you plan on trekking through the jungle overnight, the vaccination does more harm than good in most opinions.

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About Chris

Chris founded LivingThai.org in 2011 and has received over 3 million visitors. In 2017 he stopped writing new content (although does update the site) and is now focused on writing for his new website SlyNomad.com.